micevsmillWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“mice” and “mill” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,166
“mice” frequency rank
#3,769
“mill” frequency rank
9935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mice mill
Definition plural of mouse A grinding apparatus for substances such as grains, seeds, etc. (Some are small and simple, and some are large and complex.)

Where the eye mixes mice and mill

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mice
4 ch
mill

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mice (/maɪs/) and mill (/mɪl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mice is recorded at frequency rank #6,166, classified as anoun, pronounced /maɪs/. mill is at rank #3,769, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɪl/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 9935, this pair ranks #494,839 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mice vs mill

Shared letters: im. Private to "mice": ce. Private to "mill": l.

"mice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miceimce · mcie · micce · miec · mmice
  • millimll · mlil · mmill

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mice" and "mill" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/maɪs/ versus /mɪl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mice" or "mill"?
"mill" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,769 in our English list, against #6,166 for "mice". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mice" and "mill". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mill" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #494,839 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mice" and "mill" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mice vs miser". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list